De jure/de facto

Edward Higgs

In the context of census taking, a de jure enumeration is one by usual place of residence, and de facto by place of enumeration. The Victorian enumerations in England and Wales were supposed to be de facto, that is, the householder was supposed to include on the household schedule only those persons present in the household on Census Night. The only exception were night workers returning home the next morning, who were also to be included (Higgs, 46). Members of the 'family' who were absent for longer periods, or who had left the parental home altogether, were not to be noted. They were to be recorded in the households in which they were resident on Census Night. This can lead to odd phenomena, such as an excess of married women over married men in the returns, due no doubt to many of the latter being at sea, or abroad (Higgs, 66). De facto enumerations are usually preferred in national censuses because of the problems of potential double counting in de jure surveys.

However, the British censuses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were not all strictly de facto. It is perfectly possible that some householders misunderstood the instructions and put down people on their schedules who they thought 'ought' to be there. Moreover, the censuses before 1841 merely asked the overseers of the poor to provide information on the numbers of persons 'actually found within the limits of your parish, township, or place, at the time of taking this account...' (Higgs, 5). But how exactly was that 'time' defined? Many overseers probably took this to mean how many people were 'usually' present, rather than making minute enquiries about people who might be away for a day or two. Similarly, from 1851 onwards, the customs officers were not only to enumerate those on board ship in harbour on Census Night but also those on ships that reached the port within a certain time period afterwards. Thus, the merchant marine enumerated is not that in UK waters on Census Night (Higgs, 40–44).

In the early twentieth century a number of different enquiries within the census somewhat undermined the de facto principle, as they called for information on those not living in the household on Census Night. In 1911 the householder was asked to put down the total number of children born alive to the present marriage, the number still alive, and the number who had died (Szreter, 604–5). The inquiry into marital fertility was introduced to provide data on whether the poorer classes were having more children than those higher in the social scale. This was linked to the concerns of eugenicists, who believed that this was leading to the genetic decline of the British 'imperial race' at a time of imperial and economic crisis (Szreter, 1–282).

Similarly, in 1921 married men, widowers and widows were to give the number and ages of their living children and stepchildren under 16 years, whether they were residing in the household or not (Census of England and Wales, 1921, General report with appendices, 190, 202–3). If orphans were under 15 years it was to be stated if the parents of such children were both alive, or whether the father, mother, or both were dead (Census of England and Wales, 1921. General report with appendices, 202–3).

The reason for collecting information on the ages and numbers of children, and on orphans, was stated to be "for the service of the increasingly numerous and important problems relating to pensions, invalidity allowances, workmen's compensation, and such like matters in respect to which the liabilities of individuals are to some extent measurable in terms of the numbers and conditions of others economically dependant upon them" (Census of England and Wales, 1921, Dependency, orphanhood and fertility, iii). The fiscal purposes to which this information was put was also stressed by the 1921 General Report, which noted that the data collected had helped to underpin the financial framework of the 1925 Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act (Census of England and Wales, 1921, General report with appendices, 2). Both heads of information were being sought by the Government Actuaries Department (National Archives, London: RG 19/51, 136).

But in both 1911 and 1921 the people named on the census schedule were still only to be the de facto residents in the household home on Census Night.

REFERENCES

Census of England and Wales, 1921. General report with appendices (London: HMSO, 1927). [View this document: General report, England and Wales, 1921]

Edward Higgs, Making sense of the census. The manuscript returns for England and Wales, 1801–1901 (London, 1989).

TNA RG 19/51, Census Joint Committee: notes on proceedings; correspondence.

Simon Szreter, Fertility, class and gender in Britain 1860–1940 (Cambridge, 1996).